An undermanned Kookaburras team has suffered a heavy loss to old rivals the Netherlands on Thursday, going down 6-1 in game one of the 4 Nations tournament in Monchengladbach. Host nation Germany also made a winning start to the competition, battling their way past Spain.
With many key players missing from the line up, including Mark Knowles, Jamie Dwyer, Des Abbott, Luke Doerner, Rob Hammond, Liam De Young, Grant Schubert and Graeme Begbie, the Kookaburras came up against a strong Netherlands team and were given a hockey lesson.
The game was well over by the half time break, with the Netherlands gaining a four goal lead at half time after completely dominating the first half.
On the back of some poor defence by the Australians the Netherlands continued to control the game in the second half, getting out to a 6-0 lead before Chris Ciriello got one back for the Kookaburras from a penalty corner late in the game.
The likes of Eddie Ockenden, Fergus Kavanagh and Simon Orchard tried hard for the Kookaburras, but at in the end the game was never in dispute.
The Netherlands goals were scored by Roderick Weusthof (2), Billy Bakker, Rogier Hofman, Taeke Taekema and Jeroen Hertzberger.
The Kookaburras must regroup quickly as they face world number two team Germany on Saturday 24 July.
The other match saw host nation Germany face Spain, with Germany running out 2-0 winners. Jan-Marco Montag scored both the goals to ensure that Germany made a winning start to the tournament. With Germany and Spain both in the same group at next month's EuroHockey Nations Championships it was clear that both sides were reluctant to give away too much to their opposition, but it was Montag's double that proved to be enough for Germany to claim all three points. Spain will aim to recover from defeat when they face The Netherlands on Saturday.
The 4-Nations tournament in Monchengladbach is being live streamed on the internet. A link to the live stream site can be found here: http://www.spobox.tv/sport-mix/vier-nationen-turnier/hockey-23-24-juli-live .
4-Nations Tournament
Monchengladbach, Germany.
Results and Standings after Day 1
Netherlands 6-1 Australia
Germany 2-0 Spain
|
|
P |
GF / GA |
Wins |
Points |
|||||
| 1. | Netherlands | 1 | 6 | : | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 2. | Germany | 1 | 2 | : | 0 | 1 | 3 | ||
| 3. | Spain | 1 | 0 | : | 2 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 4. | Australia | 1 | 1 | : | 6 | 0 | 0 | ||
